Quick Christmas Craft!: Tabletop Tree

Hi there!

I know I never write on Sundays, but I wanted to post this quick craft with at least a little time to go before Christmas.  It's a different take on a tabletop Christmas tree, and it's a very easy and lovely way to decorate your desk at work, your kid's room, a mantle, or use in lieu of (or addition to) a centerpiece on your Christmas table.

This year, I'm doing it in lieu of a Christmas tree altogether.  I really didn't have much of a choice, given our tiny apartment and the fact that pine trees aren't really in abundance in South Africa.  We also didn't want to buy a fake tree that we'd have to leave behind.  So tabletop tree it is!

I also wanted to do something quick and on the cheap.  Something that looked beautiful, but that I wouldn't cry over when it came time to get rid of.

Here's how I did it:

Take a bunch of tree branches.  Don't go cut any down!  Just pick up ones that have fallen in your backyard or nearest park.  Pick knobbly ones, it gives you more places to put your ornaments:

Find a container for them.  Use a vase (a tall vase with tall branches would be gorgeous!), an old can wrapped in pretty fabric and/or ribbon, a flower pot ... whatever you've got around the house.  I picked this empty tin of golden syrup I had.  When we were done with the syrup, the can was so pretty and old fashioned looking that I couldn't bear to throw it away -- so glad I didn't!  Use dried peas, rice, beans to weigh it down.  You can put cloth or ribbons (or pretty yarn like I did) if you don't want to see your crusty old lima beans in there :o)

Stick the branches in the pot and see how they look.  If any are too long, trim them:

You can choose to leave them au naturale, but I chose to paint mine white.  One, because I like the look of the crisp white and two, because this is as close to snow-covered branches as I'm gonna get in South Africa! 

Now, for decorations!  Back home I have boxes of ornaments.  But again, I really didn't want to go out and buy anything (unless it was something really special that I wanted to bring back to the US.)

So I got in touch with the 5 year old in me and cut out the world's wonkiest stars out of an old pizza box, painted them and covered them in glitter:

And I found all my favorite beach glass and shells from my beachcombing.  I used plain white thread to hang them; most I was able to just loop through, some I adhered the thread with a dot of hot glue.  (And yes, I brought my hot glue gun with me to South Africa.)

I took a necklace that I got for $1, cut up the beads, hot glued them on more thread and painted them red:

I also stuck a few flower hair clips in there ... and voila!:

I love it!  Brings a lot of cheer to our little apartment!  And look, I did end up buying a few "ornaments" eventhough when I bought them they were being sold as keychains:

Wire and bead folk-art is everywhere in South Africa, and I thought these multicolored guys would be a great reminder of the Christmas we spent in South Africa.  There's the elephant above, a rhino, a reindeer, and below, an ostrich(!) and a giraffe (!!).  I love putting hand-made things on my Christmas tree, so these guys are definitely coming back home with me to the US!

Alrighty kids, hope you enjoyed that.  You still have time to make one of these.  It'd be a really fun craft for kids to do to decorate their bedrooms, and you can make it all your own.  Paint the branches red and put on all gold ornaments, leave them natural and go for an earthy look ... whatever melts your butter ... go for it!

Happy Christmas Crafting!